3 Days left

With three days left until I must go back to the real world, I am slowly  realizing how much I am going to miss the Jaguar Rescue Center. It's been wonderful to meet so many people, and to watch so many animals go from unhappy to healthy and ready to release.

Otelo is one of those pets. When Otelo first came to the center, he didn't know he was a monkey. For that matter, he was kept in a house with no windows, and so he didn't even know what a tree was. You can imagine how scared Otelo was when he first came to the center, an open space with people who cared about him. At first, Encar tried to interact with him everyday , but everyday she would get bitten badly. It wasn't until she finally had a breakdown and yelled back at him that he started to calm down. When I came to the center, he was accepted into the troop, he could go to the forest, and he was doing better and better. He still  had to be separated at night, but during the day he had learned to interact with the monkeys, and could be near them. It seemed like he was on the road to recovery, and everyone was happy to see quick progress being made. He enjoyed going up trees, and could even be around the little monkeys. Until a few days ago. Chipito, our alpha male, attacked him, and so the rest of the troop attacked him. He was shaken up by it and feeling a little depressed. Each volunteers tried to take a few minutes out of their day to spend time with him so he would be reminded that he was still loved. Unfortunately, his old habits kicked in after being ostracised by the rest of the troop. I was spending some time with him after he had bit three other volunteers. I had been able to say that he had never bitten me, until that fateful day. Otelo doesn't attack because he feels threatened, he bites because he doesn't know how to cope with his feelings, just like humans have many various way of dealing with their emotions. This is mostly due to his past. I came in and everything was fine. He was cuddling with me. I scratch his tummy and was gently petting his head. Suddenly, he wanted to go on my shoulder. A lot of times, when monkeys feel like they are going to be abandoned they climb on our shoulder, so we can't leave without them. I thought nothing of it. He was a bit restless, but this was Otelo, who knows what was going through his head. And this is the problem with him, whatever was going through his mind stressed him out enough to bite me. He bit my shoulder, which caused my reaction to swat him off my shoulder, and that's when he bit my hands. Now, I was alone in a cage with him, and he was blocking the door acting agressif. I started calling people's name and it wasn't until Giseala came that I was able to be relieved of my duty. What I haven't mentioned yet, is that in my terror, I decided not to check out check my hand, which was bleeding quite a lot. I wrapped it up in my bandana and tried to ignore what was happening there. My hand is fine, it was a few small scratches, which made it look more dramatic than it truly was. Obviously, I cried as soon as I got to the nursery. I didn't cry because it hurt, but because I was upset that Otelo would not want to be my friend. I know how ridiculous it sounds, but my feelings got hurt because a kid on the playground pushed me and made fun of me- and it wasn't even the popular kid.

Anyway, a few days later, Chipito took my revenge and bit Otelo pretty badly on the arm. The poor little monkey needed five stitches. I got to help witness the operation since I work in the nursery, and all I wanted to do was hug Otelo to tell him that I knew how badly he felt. The problem with Chipito repeatingly biting Otelo is that they will never be able to interact. Otelo will have to be alone forever, or he will have to find a new troop. Without a healthy mind, Otelo can't form his own troop, but without the interactions he has with the rest of the monkeys, he can't be healthy.

While Otelo was in the nursery being healed back to health, I had another sick animal. Fernando didn't seem like his normal self in the morning. His eyes were clouded and he was reacting to my movements. I presented him to Encar with a knot growing in my stomach. Immediately, she gave him some anti-biotics and some other medication, while I was making some apple juice. Between the chaos of Otelo and Chipito, Fernando was to the side, and I was checking on him, cheering on every bite of his leaf. As the day went in, he was put in "intensive care" which means he was put on a thermal blanket and offered apple juice every 30 minutes. It seemed that he was waking up a bit more, and that he was eating a little more. My muscles relaxed and if he made it through the night, I would be a little more hopeful that he would make it. The next morning, I came to the center to see his cage empty. My heart dropped to my stomach, and I rushed over to Encar.
"Where is Fernando?" I was really hoping her answer would be "Upstairs in my bed. He is sleeping peacefully." Instead, she didn't answer and just shook her head. I repeated the question, clearly not understanding what she meant, or not wanting to. She explained to me that he died the night before around 9pm. It hit me right in the heart. Fernando was the baby of the nursery. As much as Palma is my favorite, Fernando was the cutest. He was much smaller, and had the whole weaker-adorable-ness to him. As every volunteer came in to ask me how Fernando was doing, I cried everytime I had to tell them that there was no more Fernando. I cried at least six different times with six different people. As the saying goes "Grief is a luxury", and while I was crying for Fernando, I had five other babies who needed to be cleaned, fed and medicated. So the day went on. I might have not been as talkative or as joyous as usual, but I always tried to give extra love to the animals I would encounter. This attention was meant to be for Fernando, and so, every animal got to heal my grief.

This week has been terrible with animals. We lost our talking parrot, Lola. Tuki Tuki, our terrible tucan, chased her out of the center. While we were all looking for her inside the center, she actually was on the road, terrified and quiet. Finally, she heard someone, got scared and flew into the jungle. For the last two days, we have been looking for a green parrot, in the fiolage of the Costa Rican jungle. I hope everyone can see the humor in this situation, so that Lola can go in style. She probably watches everyday, giggling to herself.

Today we got two new rescues. Some French tourists came in with a dead bat. Two little baby bats were attached to the mommy bat. They are the size of my fingernail. Their feeding is tedious, and like any baby animal, I would like to reduce the transmission of disease and for that reason, I refused to do their feeding. Encar will be the one handling them, or Dora the new nursery volunteer. Baby bats need to have the liquid put drop by drop on their mouth, and then they will lick it off. I am hoping they will grow big and strong as bats are my favorite night animal/ flying animal.

I will be long gone before they will be adults, and I hope my volunteer friends will keep me up to date on all my babies' progress!

Ci-Ciao
Hasta Luego!

See you in the United States my friends!